1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to the field of data communications and more specifically to a method, system, and program product for the deployment and use of fused sensors in an arbitrary area or volume.
2. Related Art
It has long been recognized that data acquisition and environmental monitoring are improved by the use of multiple sensor devices linked through a network or system. Various parametric and non-parametric multi-sensor data fusion algorithms have been proposed for combining data from multiple sensor devices in such a network or system. See, e.g., Ma, “Parametric and non-parametric approaches for multi-sensor data fusion,” Ph.D. Thesis, University of Michigan (2001), which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The ability to deploy and use a wide variety of sensor devices over an arbitrary area or in an arbitrary volume offers great advantages in various applications, and particularly in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) applications. For example, Bevington et al. describe distributed sensor networks useful for battlefield surveillance and target tracking and that are capable of adaptation and self-organization. See Bevington et al., “Target Tracking for Heterogeneous Smart Sensor Networks,” in Battlespace Digitization and Network-Centric Warfare, Proceedings of SPIE v.4396 (2001), which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Other uses for multi-sensor systems may include, for example, the location and tracking of individuals or vehicles, security systems, wireless telecommunications and data transfer systems, and environmental monitoring applications.
However, it is often a lack of robustness or adaptability of the networks or systems within which these sensors operate that prevents realization of the full potential of multi-sensor data fusion technologies. Many such networks or systems are fixed or static. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0064260 to Padmanabhan et al., which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, teaches a static sensor network for the detection of biological and chemical agents. Others require information to be routed through a fixed central point. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0073406 to Benjamin et al., which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, teaches a mobile, dynamic network of vehicle-mounted sensors that communicate via a centralized communications controller. In such a network, the failure of the centralized data routing point or any sensor along the path to that point may render some or all of the network inoperable. This inoperability may result not only in the inability of the network to fuse the data provided by multiple sensors, but may also isolate individual sensors with respect to each other. In military applications, such isolation of network components can have disastrous consequences.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for a solution that employs a wide variety of sensors over an arbitrary area or volume, permits the rapid transmission and acquisition of data, and is dynamically reconfigurable.